Sandel's Arguments Against The Government

Public apologizes have been made over the years to make amends for historic injustice that was inflicted on victims of past wars and events. The purpose of these apologizes is to politically fix old wounds in history; however, some argues that public apologizes can sometimes create harm by re-victimizing or angering the victims and their descendants. Sandel though focused on another argument that states that people today cannot apologize and take responsibility, both financially and politically, for wrongdoings committed by their ancestors. This leads into the idea known as “moral individualism”, which states that people are only responsible for actions they voluntarily did as the actions of others are beyond their control. However, this lessens

the room for moral accountability and leads into obligations, which can arise in two ways. One as natural duties that are universal. These duties, such as justice, are things we owe each other without the need of consent. The second are non-universal voluntary obligation that comes from consent.

But these are not the only two obligations, as according to Sandel, there are obligations of solidarity, where obligations are particular to those that share a history with us and does not need consent as we our lives are somehow tied to them. However, some may argue that obligations of solidarity are actions of collective selfishness. Nevertheless, Sandel counters by stating that these obligations can be for people we know or those who may have had a burdensome history, such that public apologies are examples of this, by spreading the responsibility to other communities. Sandel then argues against the philosophy of neutrality in the government as he states that this is not possible without moral questions. Then, Sandel talks about justice. Sandel believes in the third approach of justice that involves creating a public culture of various virtues and reasons. He says that justice is judgemental as it is linked to ideas of honor and virtue, pride and recognition. It is about how we distribute justice and how we value the things around it. Sandel concludes the book, with four possible themes “the politics of common good would look like” (Sandel,

2010). The first theme is the creation of a community that is dedicated to the common good as a whole. The second theme is to create moral limits for the expanding market to prevent them from changing social institutions. The third theme is to fix inequality created by the gap between the rich and the poor that is destroying the civic virtue of society. The last theme is to increase public engagement to create stronger mutual respect among each other and a just society. Sandel says that this can be accomplished by learning and speaking to each other.